Renault Avantime.

After this I have one more blog to do and then I'm going to get back on to doing some new car looks and reviews but for now I want to talk about the biggest failure of Renaults history.

The Avantime was released in 2002 I believe (can't even remember) and sold just 499 examples in the UK and was canned in 18 months. More Aston Martins get sold in the UK than Avantimes, apparently. But what's wierd is that it isn't a bad car in real terms.

The top of the range car had a V6 engine producing 210bhp and the effect this had on performance was monumental, monumentally insignificant that is. The Avantime took the thick end of 9 seconds to accelerate to 60 and I'm going to be honest, I don't know the top speed off of my head. I think it's something like 128mph but I'm not sure, could have a lesser model there but then again the performance didn't matter.

And neither did the cornering because it cornered like a oil tanker. It rolled around like hell in tight corners and took a turning circle that would put the Earths orbit of the Sun to shame. This was mainly caused by understeer. The brakes were pretty much useless as well and the tyres were standard. In fact nothing in terms of dynamics and performance was even half good on the Avantime.

But what it was was a people carrier, and suddenly that changes the dynamics. You don't want to be hitting 60 in 5 seconds if you've got a family of 4 in the car, it'll be funny once but then all your passengers will want is a relaxing journey. Fortunately the Avantime provides this in spades. The suspension is super soft so you'll never feel a bump. Each passenger has there own bedroom, yes it is huge and even the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk wouldn't need any extra headroom. There is also the fact that the Avantime can wind down all its windows at once and because it only has two big doors you literally get the world.

Those big doors aren't a problem in car parks either as they have clever double hinges that Renault have a very complex name for. The bottom line is, they open as far as a normal door. The other great thing about the Avantime is that it has fully heated seating and a plethera of technical gadgets to play with.

I expect you could get one of these very cheap these days and unlike the previous two old cars I've blogged about you shouldn't have too much trouble with insurance. The top spec has a V6 like I said so fuel isn't fantastic but I'm sure you could plump for a lesser model and take no pain on that front.

Then again good luck finding one as statistically speaking you're more likely to find a Ferrari for sale.

The image shows off the clever window thing I mentioned and also one thing I never did, it looks horrid. Thanks for reading and I'll hope you'll read again tomorrow where ironically the Avantime will feature again.